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Downfall/Chapter One
"So open your eyes and see The way our horizons meet And all of the lights will lead Into the night with me And I know these scars will bleed But both of our hearts believe All of these stars will guide us home" ★ ★ ★ "Great StarClan!" the tabby she-cat yowled in agony. My only response was to bite down harder on her tail, the sourness of blood filling my mouth. Twisting around, my opponent grappled at me with ragged claws. I tipped my head back in pain as she landed a deep scratch on my shoulder. "You'll pay for that," I hissed. Around us, the fighting was slowly drawing to a close. One of my two closest best friends, Buck, stepped forward. Apart from a pinkish tender spot on his cheek, he seemed relatively unharmed. The Clan cats he'd been fighting didn't appear so lucky; one was limping, and the other nursed a torn ear. "You have ten heartbeats to get your mangy pelts off of our land," Buck growled. I joined him, pressing my pelt to his as a show of support. On his other side, Vicki, Liesel, Tank and Coal flanked him. Their tails twitched back and forth in anticipation, claws grinding into the ground. If the Clan cats attempted to show defiance again, we would not hesitate to leap on them and rip them to shreds. They underestimated us city cats. "This isn't your land," the she-cat I'd whipped snarled back at Buck. What she thought was bravery was really foolishness; there was nothing to be gained in her running her mouth. "You're nothing but a pack of mangy rogues. You don't have any territory." "You're wrong," Liesel responded immediately. "Twolegplace is'' ours.'' Go back to the woods where you come from, crowfood-breath." A haughty young Clan tom with stone-colored fur let out an indignant hiss. "There isn't enough prey for us there! We will take what we need from here to feed our young and elders. Not that'' you'' would know anything about chivalry or nobility, but we care for one another." Anger bubbled up in me, hot and headstrong. I dashed up till I was nose-to-nose with the Clan tom, staring into his blazing blue eyes. "Your idea of nobility is to come into our home and take our food? Besides, I thought you so-called 'warriors' were too high and mighty to scavenge like us. What happened to that, huh?" I smirked cruelly. "Kali," Buck said in a warning tone. "We've already beaten them. Give them a chance to escape." Every part of me was straining to slash my claws across the tom's face till he pleaded for mercy, but I forced myself to retreat a step. "Get out of here while you still can." "Pikepaw! Come on!" a white she-cat called from where the other Clan cats were slowly edging away, back towards the woods. Cowards. "But Skypelt-" the younger gray-furred tom began to protest. "We're leaving. Now." The tom--Pikepaw--shot me one last venomous glower. "You better watch your back, rogue." And then they were gone. i turned to face Liesel and Buck. "Pikepaw? What kind of name is that?" "A Clan name," Liesel scoffed, running a dainty paw over her russet fur. "They have a weird system for it." Buck turned to me. "Are you all right, Kali?" "I'm fine." I shrugged and stood, wiggling my paws. "Let's get back home." The three of us trotted behind Vicki, Tank and Coal. The "home" we were heading back to was a cave-like opening in the crumbling framework of an old building. About twenty rogues made up our group; twenty-three if you counted Alice's litter of kits. Truthfully, I considered us more of a family than the Clan cats were. You didn't have to refer to your family as a "Clan" or have a "warrior code" for the bond to be there. But that was something warriors didn't seem to understand. They were more selfish than I had ever dreamed anyone could be; now that prey was running out in the forest, they ventured deeper into the city, hogging up all the food that we relied on. I hated warriors with a burning passion. Tensions were steadily rising between our group and the Clan closest to ours, ThunderClan. If things came to a full-out war, I was most definitely ready to fight. And I'd start with that impudent rascal, Pikepaw. to be continued